Prosecutors in New York this week reopened an investigation into the allegations of a former Cornell University student who said she was drugged and raped by seven men at a campus fraternity house two years ago.
The woman, a third-year student at the time, said the assault began after two fraternity members pressured her to snort ketamine, a powerful anesthetic that has become increasingly accessible as a therapy for treatment-resistant depression and other mental health issues.
She has sued the university, a fraternity, a sorority and seven men in regard to handle her 2024 sexual assault complaint.
The woman acknowledged having consumed significant amounts of alcohol before arriving at the fraternity house. But she said it was the ketamine that left her incapacitated and unable to fend off the attack, which lasted several hours, according to news reports citing campus police transcripts. Local prosecutors declined to bring charges at the time.
News of the assault has brought a renewed again to attention to the drug, which in certain doses can leave users immobilized yet oddly conscious and aware of events happening around them.
Many recreational users have long referred to the extreme disassociated state as a “K-hole.” Depending on the dose, a user may have no memory of the experience.
Ketamine’s use as a date-rape drug is relatively new — substances like GHB or Rohypnol are more frequently cited. But experts say ketamine’s use to abet sexual assault has been growing as the drug becomes more widely available.
In recent years, ketamine has drawn attention for its role in the death of actor Matthew Perry. Last year, ketamine was back in the public eye following news reports of Elon Musk’s chronic use, which was said to have said to have caused bladder problems, a hallmark of sustained misuse.
What Is Ketamine?
Ketamine is a short-acting dissociative anesthetic that can have hallucinogenic effects at certain doses. It distorts perceptions of sight and sound, and makes users feel detached from pain and their surroundings.
Synthesized in the 1960s, ketamine has been legal since 1970 in the United States with a prescription. It is frequently used as an anesthetic for children, especially in the developing world, and in veterinarian practices.
In 2019, the Food and Drug Administration approved a derivative called esketamine in a nasal spray for treatment-resistant depression and depression-related suicidal ideation.
But the psychiatric use of ketamine is considered off-label and is largely unregulated, which has made the drug easily available for both legitimate mental health conditions as well as those seeking to use it as a party drug.
Experts consider ketamine a safe medication when used by doctors, but it can cause serious adverse events and physical dependence.
Dr. Patrick Giam, president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, said mixing the drug with alcohol or prescription medications was especially dangerous. He and other experts in the field expressed concern about the spread of at-home ketamine therapy kits.
“In the right hands and with the right monitoring, it’s a very valuable drug, but it should not be taken unsupervised,” Dr. Giam said. “This is where you run the highest risk of having serious, even potentially life-threatening, complications.”
Is Taking Ketamine Legal?
Ketamine occupies an unusual spot in the pantheon of mind-altering drugs. It is a Schedule III, federally controlled substance with both therapeutic and recreational uses. It can be readily be purchased online and taken at home with a prescription from a licensed health care provider.
Among recreational users, it has a reputation for relative safety compared to more fearsome drugs like opioids. But Daniel Sexton, program manager of outpatient services at Mountainside, a chain of drug treatment centers in the Northeast, said the downsides are often underappreciated.
He said there had been a recent spike in people seeking help for ketamine dependency at Mountainside, with most patients 25 and younger.
“People say it’s not like heroin or fentanyl, or even like alcohol, but I’ve seen plenty of people in treatment who wish that they never started using it,” Mr. Sexton said.
At ketamine clinics, the drug is most often administered intravenously, but those who use it recreationally often snort the drug in powder form.
Can Ketamine Be Lethal?
Ketamine is rarely lethal, but an overdose can lead to unconsciousness and dangerously slowed breathing, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Side effects like increased blood pressure and paranoia can occur at very high doses.
Dr. Gerard Sanacora, the director of the Yale Depression Research Program, said ketamine can dramatically alter cognition and cause users to lose control. “Your ability to calculate things, your ability to think clearly, is altered,” he said.
Is It a “Date Rape” Drug?
There is little data on the misuse of ketamine, but some who study sexual violence say its role in drug-facilitated sexual assaults has been on the rise.
The drug can be administered as a liquid and dropped surreptitiously into food and drink. Its effects, while not immediate, usually come on within a few minutes.
One notable feature of ketamine is that its effects are relatively short-lived, and most often fade within an hour. But repeated ingestion sends the user back into a state of incapacitation.
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